(01) Waking up

I opened my eyes almost lazily, feeling as if my entire body begged me not to get up from whatever comfortable surface I was laying on. Definitely something more comfortable than my bed from what I could remember.

What greeted my vision was a tiny enclosed space that I couldn't recognise. The ceiling was unfamiliar and weird, and the floor was.. a cloud!? Almost immediately I tried to recollect last night's events. I didn't remember doing drugs last night, nor ever in my life, and the only occasions where I drink are birthday parties, which wasn't last night.

I looked down a bit, scanning my body. My skin was tanned and comparably a lot darker from my usual beige. My body was leaner than I'd ever been in my life, and just before this I was bulking up anyway, so the change was quite drastic and obvious. The clothes I wore were just straight up weird, I looked like some primal caveman. But the craziest thing by far were the small white wings that I could very vividly feel on my back and could just barely see over my shoulder. 'Did I die and go to heaven?', I seriously questioned. Maybe it was a fever dream though.

Seemingly right on time after allowing me to analyse whatever I could, a earth splitting headache hit me as I could feel tons of information flood my head. Two and a half decades worth. Shandia, Skypiea, God Gan Fall, Enel, The holy land, Vearth. Information about those topics hit me like a tsunami as I grimaced on the outside taking a while before I gathered my bearings. I was a Shandian called Saien.

The situation at hand was quite unbelievable, so as any other sane person would do, I gave myself a big ol' slap to the face, only to wince as I felt the full force of the slap which left my left cheek stinging.

'Oh shit'

This was real. I was in the one piece world. Something that I thought and still kind of do was just a source of entertainment, an anime. I sat back down in whatever it was that I was just sleeping on and took a shaky breath. On the surface, this was a dream come true. But when you think deeper and realise how fucked up the one piece world is hidden behind the cartoony facade of the straw hats, it probably would have been more accurate to call it a nightmare. An extremely oppressing world government that can call for the destruction of entire islands if they so wish, pirates scouring the seas and plundering where they can, and men and women holding so much power that they could destroy islands with their own strength.

After the whole sky island saga though, the Shandians and Skypieans mainly lived in peace, from what I remembered. Unfortunately for me, this was not after the Skypiea arc but rather before. From Soren's memories, or rather mine, It had been 3 years since Enel had taken over as the new God of the sky islands.

'I can just wait for the straw hats to come along and defeat Enel and then-', My eyes widened. I stayed silent for a few seconds before I quietly laughed out loud to myself. I once rose to the top of the world all by myself and enjoyed everything that could have been offered, I commandeered respect wherever I went and people could only dream to live a day in my shoes. Yet in a matter of minutes almost all of that was undone. I was back to a nameless nobody, this time in a world that was far more harsh and way more different to mine. Blinded by what was going on I almost gave in and simply tried to get by, but my pride won't ever allow that. 'Different world or not, I will once again stand at the top of the world!'